16 years, 8 strokes for man who kicked and stamped on boy to death
29 Mar 2011
SOURCE: The Straits Times
THE man who kicked and stamped on a six-year-old, killing him, was jailed 16 years by the High Court yesterday.
Mohammad Johan Rashid, a jobless 32-year-old, will also be dealt eight strokes of the cane for what he did in November 2009 to Muhammad Nor Rashidy Rahmat.
Mohammad Johan had already escaped the gallows when the initial murder charge was amended to one of culpable homicide; the 16 years he will now serve is also short of the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the offence.
But it is in line with the more than 15 years which the prosecution urged Justice Choo Han Teck to hand down.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo told the court that Mohammad Johan had set upon a “vulnerable and defenceless child” in a vicious and cruel manner without justification.
In 2009, Mohammad Johan and his girlfriend Siti Roudha Amir were regularly baby-sitting Rashidy and his younger brother. They were the nephews of his friend, referred to as Ms Nurleyana Amin in court documents.
The two boys were living in Kallang Bahru with their maternal grandmother Asmah Asmoneh, 58, a hawker stall assistant, while their parents were in jail for drug consumption.
On Nov 17, 2009, Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers raided the flat and arrested Siti.
Mohammad Johan, on the run for dodging his urine tests, was with Rashidy at Jurong Point shopping mall at the time. He was told about the raid in a phone call from Madam Asmah.
Afraid his girlfriend would confess to taking drugs with him and that CNB officers could be lying in wait for him at the Kallang Bahru flat, he did not take the boy back there. Instead, he and Rashidy went to Siti’s flat in Mei Ling Street.
Three days later, he was warned by Rashidy’s aunt Nurleyana that the family would go to the police unless he returned the boy within 12 hours.
Upset by the threat, he slapped the boy when he refused to take a bath. The boy insisted on going home and flung a games console on the floor.
Infuriated, Mohammad Johan kicked and stamped on the child. When the boy blacked out, he administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but to no avail. He then stuffed the body into a trolley bag and dumped it near the Kallang River.
He was arrested on Nov 25 at a hotel in Guillemard Road.
Yesterday, his lawyer, Mr Thangavelu, told the court that his client was “truly affectionate” towards the boy and had intended only to discipline the child for talking back.
The child had 10 broken ribs and a lacerated lung
, an autopsy revealed.“Such acts should not be condoned,” said Justice Choo when passing sentence.
From the dock, Mohammad Johan flashed a thumbs-up at two women in the public gallery, believed to be his friends.
Outside the court, Madam Asmah told reporters in Malay: “He took the life of a young boy... That man should be made to pay for what he did.”
Along with life imprisonment, Mohammad Johan could also have been caned up to 24 strokes.
